Apheros Announces $1.85M Funding Round for Metal Foam Cooling Tech

Swiss deep tech startup Apheros has recently secured $1.85 million in a pre-seed funding round to further develop its groundbreaking metal foam technology for cooling data centers. Founded in August 2023 and emerging from ETH Zurich, Apheros is tackling a critical issue in the data center industry: the soaring energy consumption associated with cooling systems.

Data centers play a crucial role in the digital age, supporting the explosion of AI, machine learning, and supercomputing applications. However, as data center operations expand, their cooling requirements are escalating, with predictions that by 2030, cooling could account for six percent of global energy consumption. This highlights an urgent need for more efficient cooling solutions.

Apheros addresses this challenge with its patented metal foam technology, which produces foam structures characterized by open porosity and an exceptionally high surface area. These properties enable superior heat transfer and fluid flow compared to traditional cooling methods. The company's innovative approach offers a significant improvement over existing solutions, enhancing both efficiency and effectiveness in thermal management.

The metal foams developed by Apheros are particularly suited for high-performance cooling applications. They integrate seamlessly into existing cooling systems, promising to reduce both energy consumption and cooling costs. This is increasingly important as the demand for more advanced cooling solutions grows in response to the expanding needs of High-Performance Computing (HPC), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and data centers. More efficient cooling is essential to address current energy shortages and meet ambitious climate protection goals.

Julia Carpenter, co-founder and CEO of Apheros, expressed excitement about the new funding, stating that it will enable the company to scale up production, enhance research and development efforts, and extend their cutting-edge solutions to a broader market. She highlighted the potential of Apheros' technology to set new standards in the industry and significantly reduce the environmental impact of cooling systems worldwide.

Gaëlle Andreatta, co-founder and CTO of Apheros, emphasized the unique attributes of their metal foams, particularly their exceptional heat exchange and fluid transport properties. She noted that these qualities make their technology particularly effective for liquid and two-phase cooling applications, helping to redefine thermal management in collaboration with their customers.

The funding round was led by venture capital firm Founderful, which is committed to supporting Apheros' mission. Lukas Weder, founding partner at Founderful, expressed enthusiasm about the company's innovative approach and its potential to significantly lower energy consumption while setting new industry benchmarks.

The recent investment will play a crucial role in advancing Apheros' groundbreaking metal foam-based cooling solutions, which promise to transform the data center industry. By securing this funding, Apheros is poised to enhance and scale their technology, which is designed to significantly improve the efficiency of cooling systems used in data centers.

The company’s metal foam technology offers superior thermal management capabilities, providing a more efficient and sustainable alternative to traditional cooling methods. This is especially important given the rising energy consumption associated with data centers, driven by the increasing use of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and high-performance computing. Data centers are expected to consume a substantial portion of global energy for cooling by 2030, making innovative cooling solutions vital for mitigating environmental impact and achieving climate protection goals.

With this investment, Apheros will be able to expand its production capabilities, intensify research and development efforts, and bring its state-of-the-art cooling solutions to a broader market. The technology's unique properties, such as exceptional heat transfer and flow characteristics, position it as a game-changer in the field of liquid and two-phase cooling systems. This advancement aligns with the industry's urgent need for more efficient cooling solutions to address energy shortages and reduce operational costs.

In summary, the funding will drive the development of Apheros' revolutionary cooling technology, supporting the transition towards more energy-efficient and sustainable data center operations, and setting new industry standards for thermal management.